


Heart Eyes

by fictionallemons



Series: Benthan Holidays [1]
Category: Mission: Impossible (Movies)
Genre: Benji knows what's up, Chocolate, Cinnamon rolls, Ethan is oblivious, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Glasses, M/M, Mission Fic, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Pining, Suit Porn, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-23 02:33:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17674766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictionallemons/pseuds/fictionallemons
Summary: Ethan and Benji have to pretend to be on a date on Valentine's Day for a mission.





	Heart Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Valentine present for all my friends on Tumblr and the Discord who support and encourage my work and who all see the heart eyes every time these two look at each other. Thanks, and enjoy! <3 <3 <3

Ethan adjusted the cuffs of his jacket as he glanced at his watch. Their reservation was in two minutes and Benji hadn’t yet appeared. This op was simple, but vital. They had to plant a tracker on their target in the next sixty minutes before she left for a private airfield to travel to parts unknown. Ethan had figured it would be easy enough to pose as a patron of the fancy restaurant and wait for an opportune moment to drop the tracker. He’d forgotten until he made the reservation that it was Valentine’s Day, but that was only a slight wrinkle. Jane and Luther had already decamped for the rendezvous point. Since a man dining alone on Valentine’s Day might attract attention, Benji had been conscripted for the role of Ethan’s date. Ethan was a grownup. He could handle pretending to be Benji’s date for a measly hour. No one knew, especially Benji, that Ethan would have loved to be Benji’s date for real, any day of the year.

Ethan was lost in thought and barely heard Benji approaching from behind him. He turned around and found himself staring. Benji stared back at him calmly from behind his rectangular glasses. They were Ethan’s favorite pair of his for the way they accentuated his eyes.

Again, this was no big deal. It wasn’t like it was actual torture to be so close to Benji and not be able to tell him how he felt, or to have to merely pretend to be his boyfriend when to be with him in reality was the one thing that Ethan wanted most in the world.

“Hi, Ethan,” Benji said. “Ready to do this?”

“You’re wearing a suit.” Benji looked…amazing. He wore a dark gray suit with a light pink shirt. His stylish navy tie brought out the blue of his eyes. 

Benji looked confused. “Yeah, you said this place was dressy.”

“You look good in suits.” That’s not what he’d meant to say, but it was true.

“Oh. Uh. Thanks.” Benji cleared his throat. “You do, too.”

“After you.” Ethan gestured toward the door of the restaurant. Benji walked ahead, and Ethan let himself put his hand on the small of Benji’s back, a protective gesture that came as naturally to him as breathing.

Benji didn’t appear to be fazed. He simply gave their name to the host and glanced at Ethan with a small smile as they were shown to their table in a dark corner of the restaurant.

“I see our target. Second booth from the left,” Ethan muttered in Benji’s ear as he pulled out a chair for him. To anyone else in the restaurant, it would look like they were simply on a date, rather than an op.

“We need to get closer in order to plant the tracker.” Benji draped his napkin over his lap and glanced at the menu.

“It will be easier if she’s out in the open. If she gets up for any reason, I’ll excuse myself and tag her as I pass by,” Ethan said, keeping one eye on Benji and one on the target. She was difficult to miss in a hot pink dress and white fur wrap.

“Solid plan,” Benji said. “Now, do we actually get to eat? I’m starving.”

Ethan laughed softly. “Order whatever you want.”

“In that case I’ll have the lobster and a bottle of champagne,” Benji joked. “It’s Valentine’s Day after all.”

Ethan raised his eyebrows. Benji didn’t appear perturbed, but it suddenly occurred to Ethan that he might have wanted to have a real Valentine’s date with someone else. “Sorry you’re stuck here with me.”

“What? This is the nicest Valentine’s I’ve had in years.”

Whether or not he was just saying it to make Ethan feel better, it was nice. A waiter discretely hovered, and asked if they were ready to order.

“We’ll have two lobster salads and a bottle of Veuve Cliquot,” Ethan said confidently.

The waiter nodded, then melted away into the shadows and Benji grinned. “This is on the IMF’s dime, I take it.”

“Hey, we have an operations budget. Might as well put it to good use.”

The target hadn’t moved from her table. 45 minutes left on the clock. Ethan transferred more of his focus to Benji. He tried to imagine how he’d act if they were really dating, if they were in love. If they were married. He felt his cheeks grow warm. Blushing was an unusual occurrence for Ethan and Benji seemed to pick up on it.

“You all right, Ethan?”

“Oh yeah, it’s just a little—warm in here.” Ethan loosened his tie a hair. He watched Benji track the movements of his hands. He loosened it a little more.

The waiter returned with their champagne, opening it with a flourish and saving Ethan from saying or doing something stupid. Their glasses filled, Ethan tipped his toward Benji’s for a toast.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Benji.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Ethan.”

They locked gazes for a long minute. Ethan’s mouth went dry. He didn’t think that the champagne was going to quench this particular thirst. Benji licked his lips and put his glass to his mouth. Ethan couldn’t tear his gaze away as Benji took a sip. He watched Benji’s throat work as he swallowed. Suddenly, he was aware that he was half hard in his very nice suit pants. He glanced over at the woman in pink. She was eating a chocolate soufflé that had just been put down in front of her. He had to get himself under control before he had to get up and plant the tracker.

He tried to think unsexy thoughts. But it was difficult when the waiter set down their lobster salads and Benji started eating with gusto. Every bite that Benji took aroused Ethan’s own appetites further. He took a bite of his own meal, barely tasting the rich lobster.

“Can I ask you a question, Ethan?” Benji asked between bites.

“Of course.”

“Here’s a hypothetical scenario. Two IMF field agents have feelings for each other. Neither of them is in a relationship. There’s no rule on the IMF books against them being in a relationship. Everyone they know thinks they should be a couple. What’s stopping them?”

Ethan thought over the facts Benji had laid out. “Do they work in the field together, or tend to be on different mission teams?”

“They work well together, so they are often on the same missions,” Benji said.

“Well that’s easy, it’s a really bad idea to get involved with coworkers, especially two team members who are in the field together.” Ethan believed that 100%. It was pretty much the only reason he hadn’t told Benji how he’d felt years ago.

“So you think coworkers who like each other should just pretend like their feelings are irrelevant and everything with be okay?”

“No, obviously if the feelings are getting in the way of them doing their job, then something has to change. But, fieldwork is a highly dangerous undertaking. We can’t risk being emotionally compromised out here, Benji. If two agents started a relationship, it would cause all sorts of problems. People would get distracted, lose their focus—“

“Uh, Ethan, she’s heading for the rear of the restaurant,” Benji said, voice urgent.

Ethan looked up to catch a flash of pink before it disappeared down a hall. He jumped to his feet. “Excuse me, please,” he said to Benji before striding off to finish this job. He managed to “accidentally” bump into the woman as they were both entering the restrooms. The tracker was safely planted. He took a moment to send a secure message to Luther to make sure he had the woman’s position. When he received an affirmative message, Ethan returned to his seat.

“I ordered chocolate mousse for dessert, darling,” Benji said with a smile.

“Uh, thanks. I love chocolate mousse.”

“I know.”

“But we don’t have to stay—the job’s done. Luther’s got a lock on the target and we have to get to Milan.” Ethan was unsettled by how close he’d come to screwing up the op. He wanted to get back to feeling normal, not this jumpy feeling he’d had since Benji had shown up looking handsome as fuck.

“Our transport doesn’t leave for three hours. We can indulge in a little dessert.”

Ethan considered the threat to his sanity if he stayed to finish this non-date with Benji, then sighed in defeat. He really did like chocolate mousse. He relaxed back in his seat and Benji smiled in triumph. Ethan couldn’t help but laugh a little. He took a sip of his champagne. It was still cold and crisp.

“I think you’re wrong,” Benji said.

“About what?”

“I think sometimes people work together better when there’s an emotional involvement between the two. I think a relationship could work between two IMF field agents.”

“You do?” Ethan toyed with his glass. He felt like Benji was speaking in code and he didn’t have the key to deciphering it.

“It ups the stakes a bit, I agree. But there’s just ah, I don’t know, a sort of flow, when two people who really care about each other are in their element, working together, watching each other’s backs. Like you and me, for instance.”

“You and me?” Ethan felt his cheeks heat up again.

“We work great together. We make a good team. We have a sort of flow.”

“Flow. Right.”

“So if we decided we wanted to, say, take our relationship to another level, I think our flow would only get better.”

“Another level?” Ethan felt like ripping off his damn tie. It was suffocating him. 

“Yeah, say we went on a date. Out to dinner, perhaps. Oh, thank you,” Benji said to the waiter who set down two identical pots of chocolate mousse before them. Benji took a bite and moaned. “This is amazing.”

Ethan thought he was losing his mind.

“What would you say to me right now?” Benji asked.

“What would I say to you if we were on a date?” Ethan said, hearing his voice as if from far away.

“Yeah. Tell me.” Benji licked his spoon.

“I’m not—Benji, I’m not good with words,” Ethan said helplessly. “How could I ever explain—how could I make you understand what you—“ He stopped, took in a shaky breath.

“Then show me, Ethan,” Benji said, his dessert forgotten, his eyes bright behind his glasses.

Ethan bolted out of his chair and leaned across the table, pressing his lips against Benji’s, heedless of the food and the wine and the candle in the way. He dimly heard something knock over, something else crash to the floor. He kissed Benji, hard and long, until the kiss stopped being something desperate and softened into something infinitely sweeter and full of the promise of many Valentine’s Days to come.

“My darling?” Benji whispered against Ethan’s mouth.

“Yes?” Ethan felt honored that Benji would call him his darling.

“We have two hours and thirty minutes until our transport leaves. And there are ten years’ worth of dirty things I want to do to you.”

Ethan’s stomach leapt with hope, with arousal. With love. “I’ll get my mousse wrapped up to go.”


End file.
